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Reply to "Maui garage find Intermeccanica rebuild"

Scary part: installing two small VDO gauges

I don't like making holes in the dashboard. It just seems like it's easy to make a mistake that will take a while to fix or you'll just have to live with it. But, I wanted two gauges to the right side of the ignition switch, so back into thick of it.

The hard part is making sure that you've got the vertical and horizontal spacing in way that will look good. Truth be told, that's why gauge 2 is a clock. I wanted an oil pressure gauge, but just one gauge looked wrong to me. I set the spacing by holding the aluminum bezels in the places that looked right to me and then getting another opinion from Marianne. When she and I were both happy, I circled the rings with a pencil, and then bisected the circles vertically and horizontally to mark the centers. I tried using a center punch to make a drilling indentation, but the gelcoat usually chips off in a funny direction leaving an imperfect place to start. I found that starting the hole at the cross marks with a small drill bit worked best (didn't wander or chip). On these small VDO gauges, a 2" hole saw is a good way to start. Once the hole is made, you'll need to make it very slightly larger for the gauges to slide it. I used a Dremel tool with a small cutting bit to run around the edges of the hole. The gauges protruded different amounts from the dash, so I put an o-ring around the oil pressure gauge to even things up.

g0

2" hole sawing

g3

Needs to be just a little bit bigger

g4

One down, double checking spacing for second gauge

g1

Pilot hole for second gauge drilled

g6

Second one installed

dash1

Coming together

 

Mike

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  • dash1
  • g0
  • g1
  • g3
  • g4
  • g6
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